Barcelona (Spain), March 21 A group of some 40 Catalan chefs or those who work in Catalonia (northeast Spain) presented this Monday the solidarity initiative “Tapas for peace”, a project that was born as a response to the war in Ukraine and with the objective of “providing help to any need arising from a catastrophe or injustice”. Among the outstanding gastronomy chefs who have joined this charitable initiative are Carme Ruscalleda, Carles Gaig, Hideki Matsuhisa, Albert Adrià, Aleix Puig, Romain Fornell, Nandu Jubany, Carles Abellán and Carles Tejedor, pastry chefs Christian Escribà, Oriol Balaguer and Jordi Roca, and the CETT, ESHOB and Hofmann restoration schools. At the initiative’s presentation ceremony, the promoters of the project explained that the restaurants that adhere to “Tapas for Peace” will offer their diners the possibility of donating from one euro to the project at the time of paying the bill. Along with the money raised through direct donations from customers, who will be provided with a QR code for the transaction, restaurateurs will also be able to make donations to the campaign. The money raised by the initiative will be sent to chef José Andrés’s NGO “World Central Kitchen”, which has so far offered more than 150,000 meals to Ukrainians affected by the war, both those who left the country and those who remain on the territory of Ukraine. “With José Andrés there is a friendship from many years ago, we know where the money is going, that the reaction is very fast and that they transform it into food, which is what many people need”, explained Christian Escribà. The “Tapas for Peace” campaign is scheduled to last throughout the month of April in Catalonia, although the promoters of the project advanced that they will try to extend the initiative to the rest of Spain to continue offering humanitarian aid in other catastrophes that may come in the future. The project arose at the initiative of the Barcelona chef Quim Marqués, who in less than two weeks obtained the support of more than forty Catalan chefs. “We are a very big force and the idea is to get together to act as a loudspeaker and voluntarily collect one euro per diner,” said Marqués. At the same time, Escribà announced that in the coming weeks the Confectioners Guild of Catalonia will make public the details of the “Monas por la paz” campaign, with which one euro can be donated for the purchase of an Easter ‘mona’, a traditional sweet Catalan. “At Easter time, Catalan pastry chefs have a great opportunity, we are very committed to helping,” Escribà said. Restaurateurs and hotel establishments that wish to join the “Tapas for Peace” initiative can do so by filling out a form that they will find on the “Tapas for Peace” website: www.benana.es/tapasporlapaz. EFE rul/hm/icn
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